Johannesburg - Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer yesterday spoke candidly about his excitement now that he is finally getting to coach the national team ahead of their match against the World XV in Cape Town next week, and the trimmed down Castle Lager Rugby Championship.
But amid the euphoria there is also a sense of disquietude.
While Meyer insists that the door is not entirely closed to players from outside the current squad staking a claim in that 31-men Rugby World Cup squad at the end of August, he remains a concerned man about his dwindling resources at lock and centre.
South Africa is blessed with an abundance of talent in most positions, but Meyer has been heavily criticised for leaving a good many of them out of his squad.
Against this background, he painted a grim picture of the dire situation he finds himself in ahead of the World Cup with a lack of quality and experienced No5 locks, as well as centres.
As matters stand Meyer has no choice but to rely on veteran Victor Matfield with Pieter-Steph du Toit still on the mend while the other locks within the squad – Lood de Jager (new to the middle of the line-out) and Franco Mostert (no international experience) don’t fill Meyer with confidence.
He revealed that he will continue to pursue Andries Bekker in Japan and that he has been in contact with France-based Juandré Kruger and England-based Alistair Hargreaves with Juan Smith also an option.
“I am worried about the five lock. In our system five is the most vital guy because he runs all of our line-outs,” Meyer said yesterday.
“We have worked with Lood in moving him to five but he hasn’t played there enough especially in Test match rugby.
“I really tried to get Bekker but he is not available at this stage although we are still trying.
“If there is an injury it can happen that we pull a guy from outside the squad into the starting line-up.
“The one thing that we do need is a five lock that can run the line-out because 40percent of tries in the world last year came from line-outs.
“I truly believe that Victor gets unfairly criticised but whenever he plays we win most of our line-outs and some of the opposition’s. He still cleans the most, and still sometimes puts in the most tackles as well.
“There are one or two guys on standby like Hargreaves and we’ve been in contact and he’s available.
“Juandré is available but I felt that at this stage Mostert has really performed well in Super Rugby and I want to reward local guys. I know I have covered all my bases so it doesn’t mean that only the guys here are in contention.”
While Meyer mulls over his conundrum at lock, he is also faced with a dilemma at centre where most of his chosen men at 12 and 13 are on the mend from various injuries and going through rehabilitation.
Meyer conceded he might only have Stormers centre Damian de Allende, Lionel Mapoe and maybe Jan Serfontein fully fit to play against the World XV but that captain Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie can be considered even though they aren’t fit enough to go longer than 20 minutes.
“Lionel, Jan, Jean are injured and Jaque is coming out from injury but is not fit and we can only play him in the last two games, if he is good enough. At the same time you want to build combinations at centre going to the World Cup and Jaque hasn’t played with guys like (Handré) Pollard and Pat Lambie but we have time now.”
The Star